The present invention is directed toward reducing contamination within an enclosed dirty air space while protecting a surrounding environment from that contamination. Although this problem is similar to that of maintaining the well known clean rooms which are extensively used for scientific work such as electronics, in fruit storage facilities, and the like, it is also a very much different problem.
In conventional clean room technology the room that must be kept clean is typically pressurized slightly above the atmospheric pressure of its surroundings. Air that has been filtered and purified external to the clean room is fed in at a somewhat higher pressure so as to maintain an elevated pressure within the room. The room may have one or more doors for ingress and egress, and the positive pressure of the air within the room is relied upon to ensure that any air flow through such openings occurs only in the outward direction, thus protecting the clean atmosphere within the room.
Many presently known filter systems require periodic shutdowns for replacement of the filters, which then interrupts the flow of cleaned air and also involves significant maintenance and cleanup expense.
The present invention deals with high levels of contaminant materials in a relatively enclosed dirty air space, which high levels of contaminant materials must be removed from the air while preventing the spread of the contaminants into adjacent environment that surrounds the enclosed dirty air space.